Blackhawk #68

This September 1953 Quality Comics issue plunges readers into high-stakes aerial danger, with cover art by Dick Dillin and Chuck Cuidera depicting a sleek red-and-black enemy jet swooping perilously close to a massive atom smasher installation — a "DANGER: ATOM SMASHER" sign leaving no doubt about the stakes. Blackhawk himself is visible in his cockpit below, grimly radioing the desperate warning: "We can't fire! Our bullets would explode the atom smasher!" while armed figures on the facility's gantry look on helplessly and a second aircraft streaks across the sky. The familiar portrait headshots of the full Blackhawk squadron ring the title, reminding us that the whole team is on hand for "The Assassin Squad" — a thrillingly impossible situation that perfectly captures why this series was one of the most exciting adventure books of the early 1950s.